Flick Electric Review

Flick Electric Co describes itself as a “A little company dragging an old school industry, kicking and screaming into the future”. The retailer launched in Wellington in 2014 and ever since strives to deliver Kiwis with a fair and transparent way to purchase power.

Flick Electric Co provides its customers with innovative technology platforms that allow customers to easily access spot and wholesale electricity prices. This gives customers an almost unmatched level of control over their energy usage, making it easier for power-savvy customers to save on their bills.

What’s on offer from Flick Electric?

Flick has two products: Freestyle and Fixie. Both products offer a fresh alternative on traditional ways customers pay for power, potentially leading to lower bills.

Freestyle

The Freestyle by Flick provides customers access to the ‘spot price’, which is the same price power companies themselves pay. Spot prices change every 30 minutes, meaning the price you pay for power will increase and decrease throughout the day. Spot prices are generally the lowest when demand for power is low, such as early morning or late at night. Spot prices are generally the highest during peak times, around the afternoon and early evening. Freestyle customers have access to the Flick mobile app, so you can monitor the price and adjust their energy usage to make the most of low spot prices. If you give Freestyle a try and its not for you, then you can leave at any time without exit fees.

FIXIE

FIXIE by Flick is based on a similar concept to the Freestyle, but with a bit less leg work for customers. FIXIE customers receive access to the ‘wholesale’ rate which is fixed for a six month period. This is the price that Flick expects to pay for power from the wholesale spot price market, with no mark ups. The catch? Well there are early exit fees, but these fees reduce the longer you’re with Flick.

Volt

Volt provides customers a form of predictable billing. Customers pay a regular amount to Flick each week to build up a stash of funds from which your power bills are deducted from. This means you’re not slugged a massive bill at the end of a billing period.

How does Flick make its money?

Flick Electricity sells you power at the same price it costs them, so how exactly do they make their money? Well Flick adds an additional service charge, or ‘Flick fee’. The retailer’s website says:

“Flick’s retail fee is only 1.5 cents per unit and 40 cents per day for Standard users; or between 3.3 cents and 3.75 cents per unit (depending on where you live), with no daily charge for Low users”

Customer service

Flick provides a range of information on its services via its website, addressing different topics via its questions page.

Consumers can get in touch with Flick via phone and email, while a chat facility is also available via its website, and additionally have the option of submitting a contact form via the website.

Flick is also active on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.

Account management

Via its Choice app, available for Android and iOS devices, Flick “shows what the price of power is doing in real time so you can choose whether to consume electricity or not”.

“By shifting some of your power use to cheaper times of day, you can boost your savings even more,” Flick states of the app. “This can be as simple as running your dishwasher when you go to bed, rather than straight after dinner.”

The app additionally provides information on “which fuels are in the electricity mix at any given time, and their real-time carbon impact”.

Flick customers can also login to their online account via the Flick website, via which they can access a statement showing their electricity usage, costs and any other fees and charges, along with their invoices.

Customers can pay their bills via direct debit, either from their bank account or credit card, with Flick sending an email every Tuesday with the bill amount, and taking payment on the Thursday.

To our knowledge, all information in articles on the Canstar Blue website was correct at the time of publication. This information may have changed over time. Refer to the product fact sheet (or relevant similar documentation) before making any purchase decision. Canstar Blue's website terms and conditions apply.